Paper Details

Name: Prasenjit Panda
Country: India

Year: 2016
Volume: Volume-3, Issue-2 (July-December)
Page Number: 42-46

Mahasweta Devi, through her short stories, showcases the long suppressed voices of the marginalized. Her writings are the truthful portrayal of the brutal oppression of the tribal people and the untouchables by the upper-class landlords, money-lenders, and government officers. Devi, in her short story “Draupadi,” rewrites the myth of ‘disrobing Draupadi’ of Mahabharata in the present day context, where Draupadi becomes Dopdi Mejhen- a Santhal Naxal activist voicing against her double marginalization by virtue of her caste and gender. Devi’s Dopdi, like Gramsci’s “organic intellectual,” tries to give voice against the atrocities and oppression of the authority. Subverting the pretensions of welfare nationalism, Devi’s work focuses on the gap or void in Indian feminism and dalit activism as neither of them has addressed the concerns of the tribal women. Like “Choli ke Peeche,” Devi’s “Draupadi” also portrays the dichotomy existing between modernization of state and restricted subaltern existence. She addresses how mainstream hegemonic power structure of patriarchal society as well as welfare state protects itself through cruel and vicious ‘othering’ of those on the margins. Devi says in her introduction to Five Plays,